


Found You

by S_L_Blake



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Angst, F/M, Nice Molly, Romance, kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 03:34:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29677785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/S_L_Blake/pseuds/S_L_Blake
Summary: *ONE-SHOT* After the final battle is over, all Hermione can think about is finding Fred.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Fred Weasley
Comments: 10
Kudos: 40





	Found You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Acantha_Rayne_OakMoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acantha_Rayne_OakMoon/gifts).



> Hello everyone, this is a gift fic for Acantha Rayne Oak-Moon as part of the Gift Giving Extravaganza 2021, so I hope you enjoy it. Thank you to my alphabeta team Art3misiA and TheOnlyCeeCeeJ for helping me with this. I do not own any rights to Harry Potter; they belong to J.K. Rowling.

The war was over, Voldemort was dead and the light side had been victorious. The battle, however, hadn’t been a simple one – no - the losses had been great on both sides. It was those the light side had lost that had been a hard blow to recover from, and it would take some time to do so, perhaps years.

There was Remus and Tonks who had died fighting side by side. Perhaps it had been selfish of Remus, but he had gone after his wife once he knew she was at the school, leaving their young son with Andromeda. Now young Teddy was another orphan because of the cruelties of war, just like Harry. But he would be told about his parents, how courageous they were - it had to be enough. Then there had been Snape, succumbing to his injuries in the Shrieking Shack, the last thing he saw were Lily’s eyes in her son. These deaths hadn’t been in vain. Their memories would live on, as would the other members of the light side that had died fighting.

Hermione could neither grieve for those they had lost, nor celebrate the victory that they had won. She had one thing on her mind – to find someone she loved. That was the only thing she could focus on now as she bolted up the stone steps to go into the castle, some of them destroyed from the battle, now simply rubble strewn across the courtyard like rubbish. Her heart was racing to the point she could feel the beat of it pounding in her ears, the nausea was rolling in her stomach just at the thought of finding his lifeless body, but she knew that she couldn’t think that way. He had to be alive, he just had to be! She’d lost enough in this conflict; she couldn’t lose him too. She knew that if she did, then a piece of her would die and while she may go on, it would be as a shell of her former self and she couldn’t do it.

When she stepped into the Entrance Hall, the acrid stench of death permeated the air. Around the room and upon the stairs lay the lifeless bodies of Death Eaters in their black robes. Their bodies were limp, with some having arms and legs bent at such odd angles that they may as well have been puppets with their strings cut, unmoving. It was the silence here that was deafening, she didn’t know how much she could take of it but she took a deep breath to steady her nerves and surveyed around her, her chestnut brown eyes studying each body in the vicinity, making sure he wasn’t among them. When she couldn’t see a head of bright, red hair anywhere, she breathed a sigh of relief and made her way into the Great Hall.

The barrage of noise hitting her from all angles took her by surprise. There were the broken-hearted wails of grief from survivors bent over their loved ones who hadn’t made it on the left side of the large hall, the orderly row of bodies seemingly going on forever. The pale, ashen faces of the dead seemed serenely at peace, there was no pain in their expressions.

 _Please, for the love of Merlin, don’t let that be me soon_ , she thought, instantly chiding herself for thinking such a thing, and yet she had every right to. She knew that what she couldn’t deal with was that the thought had come into her mind in the first place. It was almost an unwanted sense of foreboding that she may just find his body and have to grieve.

In the north-eastern corner, a makeshift triage centre had been set up with crudely transfigured beds on which the injured, either laid or sat depending on the severity of their injuries. Their groans of agony seemed to float on the air towards her. Then in the middle of the room were the cries of relief and joy of families and friends being reunited. She had thought that the silence in the Entrance Hall had been overwhelming but this, this was something else. She couldn’t breathe, it was too much. She backed up on shaky legs, hitting the cool, reassuring stone wall. She just stood against it, taking slow, measured deep breaths to stop herself from hyperventilating and giving herself a panic attack. She knew full well that she would have to walk past the line of bodies first to see if he was there, she wasn’t sure if she could do it.

She stayed against the wall that was holding her up for a short time before steeling herself and making her way over to what may as well be the morgue. She spent a few minutes looking at each of the faces of the lost, recognising some that she’d gone to school with. She felt the tears well in her eyes and then fall but she didn’t wipe them away, she couldn’t. With each face that she looked at, an inkling of guilt mixed with relief filled her heart when she didn’t see him there among the dead.

 _Just because he isn’t here, doesn’t mean that he isn’t lying somewhere alone still, needing to be found,_ her conscience mused. The thought made the tears come thick and fast, while her heart felt like it would shatter, but it was a hypothetical situation - it wasn’t real, at least not yet. She hoped it wouldn’t ever be, but then, she couldn’t control what happened to people. You can’t outrun or evade fate, that was one certainty she knew for sure.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed she was moving until she realised, she was by the triage centre. She stopped her journey when she saw them – the family of red-heads, the Weasleys. Hope flared in her chest as she made her way towards the circle, hoping he’d be there. He had never been far from his twin, except for the Yule Ball when he’d danced with her and walked her up to the Common Room. Then there was their final year together at school, when things had become serious between them. He’d spent more time with her then, but she’d had a feeling George hadn’t minded all that much. The moment she got closer, she realized that he wasn’t there. Any colour she had had in her face, drained immediately, while her heart started to race again. She didn’t think it would ever beat regularly until she had found him.

“Oh, Hermione, there you are,” Molly said, enveloping her into a hug. “We’d been wondering where you were? Are you alright, dear?” There was gentleness in the Weasley matriarch’s voice while her eyes were perceptive. She knew there was something up and yet she hadn’t asked, perhaps waiting to see if Hermione would say who she was looking for and why she was upset.

“I’m alright, Molly,” Hermione replied, wiping her tears away and looking around at the others. They were all smiling the best they could at her in an almost assuring way, apart from Ron. His blue eyes were blazing with a mixture of sadness and anger at her before he turned after mumbling something and skulked off, probably to find Harry. She knew that she was the reason he was being like that and remembered what had happened in the Chamber of Secrets only a few hours ago, yet now it felt like days, the battle had certainly taken its toll on her as it had with everyone else.

_Ron leaned in, perhaps it was everything that had just happened in the Chamber that had made him feel the need to do this but Hermione couldn’t. She put her hands gently on his chest, pushing him back. She didn’t feel that way about him, she never would, not when she was in love with his older brother._

_“Ron, don’t…”_

_“Hermione, why? I thought…” he trailed off, confusion and hurt in his blue eyes._

_“I don’t love you, Ron, not… not like that. I love you as a friend and a brother but I don’t feel anything romantic towards you. I love Fred.”_

_“You chose him over me? Why, ‘Mione?”_

_“It wasn’t like that, Ron! We just… things changed between us ever since the Yule Ball.”_

_Anger flashed in his eyes. “Oh, of course, because I wouldn’t dance with you and he did. Yeah, I get it, Hermione, no need to rub it in anymore.” He turned and began to head the way they had come._

_“Ron! You’re acting like a child. Can we just talk about this?”_

_“There’s nothing to talk about, come on.” His voice was cold, devoid of any emotion._

“Is everything alright between you and Ron?”

Hermione sighed, she knew Molly would have picked up on the awkwardness and as much as she didn’t want to answer right now, she decided it would be best to get it over with.

“Not exactly, he tried to kiss me earlier and I stopped him.”

“Because of Fred?” Molly said, her russet brown eyes gentle and understanding.

Hermione nodded. “I hate being at odds with him, he’s my best friend but I don’t feel that way about him, I haven’t for a long time.”

“I understand, dear, truly I do. He’ll come around, just give him time. I suppose you’ll be wondering where Fred is, is that why you’re in such a state?”

“Yes, I’ve been trying to find him but haven’t been able to. Do any of you know where he is?”

George chuckled, his russet brown eyes, the same as his twin’s and mother’s twinkled brightly. “When we came into the Great Hall earlier, I was taking him to the triage centre to get a few cuts seen to, but he said he was fine that he needed to find you and legged it out of here.”

Her heart pounded an anxious yet relieved rhythm in her chest. He was alive! Fred was alive!

“How long ago was that?”

George ran a hand through his unruly mop of red hair, as he thought before finally answering, “Maybe ten minutes ago.”

“Thanks, George,” Hermione said, hugging him before running out of the Great Hall. She decided to go back outside to the courtyard, figuring that Fred would have probably searched inside for her first. If she was lucky, maybe he was still outside.

Smoke and dust clogged the air, making visibility outside in the darkness dim at best. She was careful as she descended the stone stairs, with some of them destroyed. With her wand in hand, she cast _Lumos_ to help her see, though it was like wading through quicksand as she stepped cautiously around the courtyard. The light from her wand pierced the murky vision barrier, but not by much.

“Fred, are you out here?” she shouted, yet only silence answered her.

 _Where are you?_ she wondered as she stood looking around, finding that she was the only one outside - everyone else was in the Great Hall. She was tempted to leave the courtyard and head down the path towards the Black Lake, maybe he was there for all she knew. She had just begun to walk that way when footsteps behind her made her freeze in place. She whirled around, as a hand touched her shoulder gently to find Fred standing before her. There was an angry, red cut along his left cheek and a hole in his jumper at the shoulder where a deep cut was, but otherwise he was unscathed. His russet brown eyes were bright as he looked at her.

“’Mione,” he murmured, her name coming off his lips was like music to her ears. He stroked her face softly, almost in wonder that she was there with him. “I’ve been looking for you.”

The next thing she knew, she was in his arms, clinging to him as tears fell down her cheeks thick and fast, out of relief. “I didn’t know if you were… where you… oh, Fred.”

“Shhh, it’s alright, I’m here, we’re here,” he said comfortingly, as he stroked her hair soothingly.

When she felt him wince, she pulled back slightly, her eyes questioning.

“I’m fine, ‘Mione, they aren’t as bad as they look, I promise.”

Wiping her tears on her sleeve, she shook her head, her face resolute. “We should go inside, let Madam Pomfrey check you over.”

Knowing that he wouldn’t win this small battle with her, he smiled his acquiescence. “Alright, fine, we will in a minute but I need to tell you where I was.”

When she didn’t make a move to lead him inside, he continued, “Once the fighting was over, I was supposed to get checked out but I had to find you, ‘Mione. You were all that mattered. Everything will be alright now, I promise. I… I love you, Hermione. I know I’ve told you that before but with this war and everything that has happened, I had to tell you again. You’re everything to me, love.”

She could feel her cheeks flush at his words and happy tears prick at her eyes but she didn’t care, she was whole now she’d found him, alive. She smiled. “I love you too, Fred, I always have and always will,” she said, her heart soaring at saying the words. Somehow, they felt more intimate at this moment in time.

He smiled broadly and leaned down to kiss her. She pressed her lips against his and when his tongue flicked against her lips, she opened for him so he could deepen the kiss, which made her moan in delight. He would get his wounds seen to; she’d make sure of it. But right now, being in his embrace out here in the courtyard was all that mattered.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this, let me know what you thought by leaving a review.  
> I'll see you all soon,  
> S L Blake x


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